Amherst ready for border to reopen with New Brunswick

MLA says premier puts politics before people in ruling out early opening for Cumberland County
 
AMHERST, N.S. - It will be a hug six months in the making.

When Nova Scotia’s border reopens to the rest of Atlantic Canada on June 23, Felicia Landry will be looking to go home to Amherst to hug her mom and meet her sister’s young children.
 
“I can’t wait,” said Landry. “As soon as I saw it, I immediately went to my work schedule and I’m trying to change it so I can come home. I had vacation booked for around Canada Day when it was supposed to open, but I’m going to try to change my schedule so I can come home (earlier). That’s all I can think about right now.”
 
The 26-year-old Amherst woman has been living in New Brunswick since January – cut off from her friends and family in Nova Scotia due to COVID-19 restrictions that effectively closed the border to her.
 
She could’ve stayed in Amherst and travelled back and forth to her job in Moncton with Autism Intervention Services New Brunswick, but that would have cut her off from her boyfriend in Shediac.
 
She got her hopes up that the Atlantic bubble would reopen April 19, only to have those hopes dashed by the third wave of the virus. She has been keeping in contact with her family via social media and video chats but admitted it has been difficult.
 
“I’ve been taking it day by day with the support of my family virtually, and my boyfriend here, and even with this news I don’t know if I should get my hopes up. It’s been hard,” she said. “As hard as my situation has been, I know there are people who’ve had a lot more difficulty. I’ve had fantastic family support.”
 
Although she’s been let down before, Landry is confident it will happen this time because more people are getting vaccinated and the provinces can only keep the borders closed for so long before people demand they’re reopened.
 
“We’re all doing our part so there has to be some sort of reward. If not, there’ll be pushback,” she said.
 
Landry said she’s been tearing up thinking about seeing her family and her niece and nephew.
 
The border news is also something Amherst Mayor David Kogon has been waiting for. He has long advocated for a regional approach to reopening the borders.
 
“It’s great news. We were expecting it to happen a week later,” the mayor said. “Things are going so well that we’re in a situation where it can happen earlier. That’s certainly a positive.”
 
Kogon said Amherst and Cumberland County have suffered with the restrictions because of the close relationship between communities on both sides of the border. It has created hardship for those requiring medical services, separated families and impacted businesses cut off from their customers in southeastern New Brunswick.
 
“The limitations on cross-border travel have hurt Amherst more than any other community in Nova Scotia because approximately 40 per cent of our retail business comes from residents of New Brunswick,” Kogon said. “To see those restrictions come to an end is extremely positive for business in an economic sense. The social ties with people who live and work in the opposite province and the families that have been split apart is a huge social reason why it’s so good to see that border opening.”
 
Kogon, like others, hopes the border stays open this time; but he said the reality comes down to achieving a vaccination rate that brings about a herd immunity from the virus.
 
“That’s when we can get assurances the border will stay open and expand beyond the Atlantic Provinces very quickly,” he said. “Vaccination of the masses is the key to controlling COVID-19 and the way to getting back to normal living of before the pandemic occurred.”
 
Ron Furlong, executive director of the Amherst and Area Chamber of Commerce, said his organization’s members have been patiently waiting to reopen to New Brunswick customers. The chamber understands the process used and the need to protect the population, but Furlong said it also recognizes the need to reopen as virus numbers come down and stay down.
 
“Our members are frustrated we have this artificial border that cuts them off from their customers and they’re frustrated that we have low case counts but still can’t engage with them,” Furlong said.
 
Furlong said the business community was hoping Nova Scotia would follow New Brunswick’s lead in opening that province to Cumberland County.
 
While New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs confirmed Tuesday that Cumberland County residents will be able to travel into that province, along with residents from P.E.I. and Newfoundland as parts of Quebec without self-isolating, his Nova Scotia counterpart said those residents who do travel across the border to New Brunswick will still have to isolate upon their return.
 
“They will have to self-isolate until June 23,” Premier Rankin said during Tuesday’s June 15 COVID-19 briefing. “We have a policy for our province and New Brunswick went ahead with just a piece of our province and that’s their decision to make.”
 
The premier’s answer has Cumberland North MLA Elizabeth Smith-McCrossin accusing Rankin of putting politics ahead of people.
 
“It proves what we’ve all suspected, he is using our border for his own personal political benefit. He’s not making decisions based on epidemiology,” she said. “Based on the epidemiology there is no reason why he would not allow Cumberland to reopen with New Brunswick.”

Saltwire Network
https://www.saltwire.com/nova-scotia/news/local/amherst-ready-for-border-to-reopen-with-new-brunswick-100600254/